When does “I love you” come too soon?

You always hear about these whirlwind romances – boy meets girl, boy asks girl out, they go out on one date, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after…or some variation of this fairytale. One of my good friends is a “good guy” (see previous post) and he’s been looking for “The One” for the last year or so…and I mean, really really looking. He’s also extremely picky and Asian, so he’s very screwed. 1) There’s not a lot of Asian girls that meet his standards, and 2) There’s not a lot of hot Asian girls that want Asian boys.

But he finally found one and she’s adorable and I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than he does. He saw her on MySpace, thought she was cute and started chatting her up online. They went out on one date and have been inseparable ever since.

When I had dinner with him the other night, I asked if he had said “I love you” yet. And he had, but she actually said it first. I was shocked; a girl saying “I love you” first seems like a such a cliché and breaks all the rules that we live by. It gets even funnier…

Me: Wow, she said ‘I love you’ first?

Mr. Good Guy: Yeah, she said it accidentally. We were just chatting about and she just blurted it out.

Me: When was this?

Mr. Good Guy: A week after we started dating.

(My jaw drops to the floor at this point. When I pick it up, we continue the conversation…)

Me: Did you say it back?

Mr. Good Guy: No, I wasn’t ready.

Me: That must have been really awkward. What did you say?

Mr. Good Guy: That I really liked her, but wasn’t ready to say it just yet.

Me: So when did you finally say it?

Mr. Good Guy: (Laughs) Later that day.

I don’t know what I find the most surprising – that she said it first, that he didn’t say it back, that it was a week into the relationship, or that he said it later that day. Can you really know if you love someone a week after you met them? On the flip side, can you date someone for 9 months and not say “I love you” as McDreamy did (see previous post)? When does “I love you” come too soon?